Three hundred and one symphonic scores from throughout the world were
submitted, of which two hundred forty-six were deemed eligible.
Kazimierz Kord, director of the National Philharmonic, Warsaw served
as Chairman of the jury.

The Chopin Piano Competition took place at the Kosciuszko Foundation
on May 11-13th. The first prize winner received $2,500 for further
piano study and will be presented in two performances: Chopin Festival
in Duszniki-Zdroj, Poland in August and in a performance in Colorado
in September.
Second prize winner received a scholarship of $1,500 and $1,000 went
to the third prize.

THE FIFTH AMERICAN NATIONAL CHOPIN COMPETITION was held March 12th in
Miami, Florida. Fourteen participants competed for over $75,000 in
cash prizes, concert engagements and an opportunity to represent the
U.S. in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in October.

FIRST PRIZE: Jon Nakamatsu, 26 year-old from Los Gatos, CA
received $15,000 cash award and a 13-day Concert Tour that included
recital debuts in the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center, NY on
April 25 and the Terrace Theater in the Kennedy Center, Washington,
D.C. on May 3rd. He also won two $1,000 prizes for the best
Mazurka and Polonaise.

SECOND PRIZE: Andrew Armstrong, 21 year-old pianist from Detroit,
Michigan. Also won $1,000 for the best Concerto performance.

THIRD PRIZE: Peter Miyamoto, 25 year-old from San Francisco won
$6,000.

FIFTH & SIXTH PRIZES of $2,500 and $2,000 each were won by Melanie
Hadley and Katherine Lee, respectively.

This American Chopin Piano Competition is open exclusively to American
pianists, native born or naturalized. The four top winners are
sponsored by the Foundation for participation in the International
Chopin Competition in Warsaw. They were also presented in an official
pre-Warsaw performance at the Embassy of the Polish Republic in
Washington, D.C. on April 27th.

NEWS OF THE "BIG ONE:"THE XIII FRYDERYK CHOPIN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION will take
place in Warsaw, Poland from October 1 - 22nd. Out of 258 applicants
(the largest number of entries in the competition's history), 140
pianists qualified for the competition. They come from 33 countries
with Japan and Poland having the largest number of 23 each. The
chairman of the jury, Professor Jan Ekier, will be serving for the
third time in this capacity. Others in the jury include Bella
Davidovich, Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Lidia Grychtolowna, Hiroko
Nakamura, Adam Harasiewicz, Piotr Paleczny.

The top three winners will receive cash awards of $25,000, $15,000 and
$10,000. In addition $4,000 each will be granted for the best
performance of a Polonaise, Mazurka and Concerto.

The Polish premiere of Joanna Bruzdowicz's opera, "The Penal Colony"
after Franz Kafka took place June 9, 10 and 12th in the Teatr Narodowy
in Warsaw. The composer brought American Christopher Martin to direct
this presentation. Meir Minsky is music director with scenography by
Wieslaw Olko. The opera is scheduled for an appearance in New York
city in the fall.

AMERICAN WOMEN COMPOSERS MIDWEST sponsored a program, "Poland's Music:
The Feminine Voice - a flowering of creativity by its astonishing
women composers." at the Polish Museum of America in Chicago on
Friday, June 9, 1995. In conjunction with the museum's preview
opening of its new exhibition "Women in Art," this program was made
possible by grants from the Polish National Alliance and AT&T.
Special guest: Marta Ptaszynska, one of Poland's leading composers.
The choice of guest composer was very apt, since Marta seeks
inspiration from paintings and several of her compositions were an
outcome from her choices in art.
DID YOU KNOW THAT...

There is an interesting Polish connection in Haiti? In 1873 three
thousand Polish soldiers were sent to Haiti to squelch the revolution
against the authorities. The Polish soldiers, who had failed in their
own struggle for freedom from the occupying forces in their own
country, had been exiled. They soon learned the truth and sided with
the rebels. The three hundred that survived intermarried with the
native Haitian girls and preserved and nurtured the traditions of
their homeland. An interesting part of this story, as related to me
by Los Angeles architect, Jerzy Pujdak (who visited the island many
years ago) is that not only do these descendants have Polish surnames,
but several of them still use some Polish phrases (especially, when
cursing).
The music connection here is that one of the religious songs used
during mass is set to the melody of a Polish folk song, "Goralu, czy
ci nie zal?" (Highlander, are you not sad?). This same melody is
widely used in Mexico and churches both in Haiti and Mexico are named
after the Virgin Mary (Matka Boska Czestochowska), after the famous
church in Czestochowa where the Poles won victory over the Swedes in
the 17th century.
RECORDINGS:

Grzegorz Nowak, who can boast of more than 30 recordings with the New
York Philharmonic, is the new music director of the Edmonton Symphony
in Canada. The Polish Music Reference Center just received a cassette
and CD of Three Bach Concertos for Keyboard. Arti Recordings PD 3001.
NOWAK conducting the Warsaw Philharmonic and Piotr Folkert, piano.

In June the best sellers List at Tower Records showed that Gorecki's
"Third Symphony" was still holding in popularity.

No. 1 in vocal (non-opera) was the disc, "Evocation of the Spirit:
Works by Gorecki and Part." Robert SHAW and the Robert Shaw Festival
Singers. Telarc. No. 7 was "Ikos: Music by Gorecki, Part and
Tavener." Choir of King's College, Cambridge, England.

FEATURED ARTIST OF THE MONTH: Marek Szpakiewicz
Marek is a cellist from Poland studying with famed Professor Eleanor
Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California (USC), Los
Angeles. He began his cello studies when he was 6 years old in
Lublin, Poland. He came to the United States a few years ago to study
at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD. From there he
was awarded a summer fellowship to study at the Music Academy of the
West in Santa Barbara and then on to USC.

Before coming to the U.S. he was a winner of several competitions in
Poland and performed as a soloist in recitals and with orchestras in
Poland and Holland. He has recorded for Polish Radio and Television.

In recent months he won several competitions in the Los Angeles area.
He won the Young Artists' Competition which resulted in his
performance of the Dvorak "Concerto" with the Pasadena Orchestra under
the direction of Wayne Reinecke (May 19, 1995). He was also the first
prize winner of two separate competitions (Pasadena and Orange county)
sponsored by Sigma Alpha Iota, a music fraternity. His latest triumph
was with the Phi Beta Fraternity (PI IOTA chapter) where he tied for
first place with Roberto Cani, a violinist also studying at USC. They
were awarded $300 each and a recital on June 25th where Marek
Szpakiewicz performed the Zoltan Kodaly "Solo Sonata for violoncello"
and a Bach "Prelude."

Marek also participated in the biennial Piatigorsky Seminar held at
USC. This year's master classes were headed by famed Siegfried Palm,
Zara Nelsova and Harvey Shapiro.

COMMEMORATIONS & ANNIVERSARIES:

OBITUARY: KAZIMIERZ WILKOMIRSKI, Poland's outstanding cellist,
conductor, composer and teacher passed away on March 7, 1995 at the
age of 85. Several excellent miniatures for cello should be explored.

SUMMARY: The only Polish composer's Centennial to celebrate in the
next few years is Alexandre Tansman's. In addition to the composer's
guitar pieces and the "Piano Trio," one could schedule performances of
his: